Cathy Spiers

Bio: Hello I'm a work in progress exploring light and shadow. I have explored creativity in an interdisciplinary way in clinical, social care and educational settings with people across the generations. My work is currently evolving into immersive light projection installations, shadow play and multisensory textural creations that people can explore. I want to encourage people of all abilities to engage. There's a link to a Google album of recent work if you're interested:-

Website: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QGo1FEATXWuFk5sf8

Day 30
Parents
A stylised black & white line-effect photo in landscape orientation with a white vignette frame. Its view point is low, looking up at an elderly woman on the left & an elderly man on the right. They are asleep, slouched & leaning towards each other in arm chairs, with a tall, thin black lamp between them. The woman has a blanket covering her legs.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 29
The joy of seeing others enjoy
A composite image of 3 photos in landscape orientation. The are dark silhouettes of people; adults and children exploring the shapes they make with their bodies & simple cutout puppet shapes of sea creatures between layers of netting. Superimposed on top of these images are examples of handwritten feedback saying near the top, "A magical ten minutes. We really enjoyed it. Thanks". Another comment was, "Really amazing." At the bottom, another comment saying, "Thankyou for this wonderful experience."
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 28
An unexpected find.
A white landscape-orientated white background with a very black small ant drawn in the bottom-right corner.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 27
Time for a change
A triptych of 3 consecutive images arranged side by side in landscape format: starting with a photo of a dandelion clock with a green grass background, followed by 2 digitally altered versions of the same photo in different colours in varying shades of browns, yellows & a hint of purple.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 26
Whilst elderly parents get their COVID jabs.
An orange background with a spiral of white dots getting bigger as they spiral out in a clockwise direction. There are smaller light orange dots spiralling outwards next to them. This spiral is echoed by lines and wriggly lines in lighter orange outwards.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 25
Orange snail blur
A landscape orientated image of a very blurred white snail silhouette cutout going from left to right. The background is varying shades of orange. The blurring effect slants on a diagonal across the snail.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 24
I didn't make this, but I wish I had.
A landscape-orientated black & white photo cut out & pasted digitally onto a white background. On the left is a plastic corner drain section, out of which are lots & lots of plastic bottle tops, held together with wire to symbolise water pouring out of a tap. Above the cutout photo, is some hand-written words in capitals. It says, 'I didn't make this, but I wish I had.'
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 23
BREAKING NEWS...
A landscape orientated image of a colour photo with added text. Straddling the whole of the top sixth pf the image is a band of red with text on top in a white font. It says, 'BREAKING NEWS...' Below that there is a white landscape rectangle of paper that nearly fills the whole space. on it in black text there is a poem that says, 'Love is in the air. You are Love. Flow in Love. Rise in Love. Love is One. We are One.' There are glimpses of green vegetation, building and blue sky from a larger printed photo that is underneath the paper on which the poem is printed.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 22
The start of a very long journey...
A coloured landscape-orientated photo of a cardboard cutout snail in profile. The photo is taken from a low perspective. The snail is on tarmac, leant against the glass of a bus shelter, a supporting post, far left of the snail. The road is directly behind, with a car in shot, seen through the glass. Very far left, a house can be seen on the other side of the road. A black outline thought bubble is drawn above the snail. In it says, "The start of a very long journey".
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 21
Assess This Space
On the left is a description of an installation, in the middle there is a photo of a group of people in a culvert & on the right there is text that says:- "Access to the urban culverted Sheaf & Porter rivers are limited to those who are physically able and want to experience it first hand. This installation envisions an immersive encounter for those who cannot directly experience the urban caving tours. Space between the net ’walls’ invites participants of all ages and abilities to engage in the installation by being in and passing through the projected moving image."
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 20
Idea for an installation
White print on a black background which says, "An installation in a long dark room. At one end is a projector throwing a moving image onto and through a series of net ‘walls’ 2.25 metres tall, each one suspended from the ceiling, touching the floor with weights. The last ‘wall’ is opaque, so the moving image is clearly seen and realised after the more ephemeral images through the ‘net’ walls; the spaces between them being 1 metre. The moving image being projected is that of an urban caving tour in Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK, of the culverted Rivers Sheaf and Porter."
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 19
"I could stare into the water for hours"
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 18
Something Ugly
A landscape-orientated image of a solid black background with large white writing going from left to right across the middle of the frame. It says 'Hate speech', the first letter is uppercase, the rest are lowercase. The font style looks hand drawn, with the first 'H'. the 'p' and last 'h' extended downwards to look like they've been scratched out with downward strokes of fingernails. They've then been extended further downwards with white dots. Each letter 'e' has an eye instead of a black centre and the 'tails' have spikey teeth.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 17
Window into my Soul
An image in colour of a window frame. A yellow sun shape with yellow rays bursts out of the window frame bottom left. It has an orange spiral radiating clockwise out of its centre. Behind it there's grey clouds with spiralled 'S' shaped curls. Behind that is a rainbow that bursts out top right of the window frame with wavy lines in different colours on top of each band of colour of the rainbow. In the top left of the window there's yellow stars of different sizes on a dark blue sky. Writing at the top & bottom says 'Window to my Soul'.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 16
Nature's Party Sounds
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 15
"Don't miss this exciting offer in honour of James Brunt"
Landscape image of a spoof advert for a mug. On the left is a photo-realistic image of a mug decorated with a black & white drawing of white leaves radiating outwards from a centre point. The mug handle is visible on the left and the inside of the mug can be partially seen. There is a red star at the bottom with white text on it saying 'Now only £5! While stocks last'. To the right of the mug there's a light blue rectangle with a black outline. Text inside advises the reader not to miss out on this 'once in a lifetime' opportunity' to own this mug & to 'go online to our website'.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 14
My plan was...
A landscape photo of an open spiral-bound notebook. A hand can be seen at the bottom holding it open. The left page from the viewer's perspective is a light brown colour with white writing. It reads, "My PLAN was to print all my 30 Works stuff out & document in this book, but I'm so so so TIRED now after clearing out all my late mother-in-law's clothes...". A white ruled page is on the right. On it there is a flow diagram about ideas of what I want my arts practice to look like; accessible, inclusive, multisensory & for everybody.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 13
Cosmic Snail
A landscape image of a varied cream/white neon outline snail profile with an inner neon spiral & a solid black fill. The direction of travel is left to right. The background is made up of soft line shapes in varying shades of cream/ light blue greys fading out to solid black.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 12
Slow Ways...
A landscape image with a patchwork of triangles in various shades of green and a few in black totally covering the frame. Some are very small and some are large. Where they join at their points are orange dots. Some have thin wavy parallel lines in black or white, some have spirals filling them in black or white. There is a black snail with a white outline superimposed on top of the triangles in the centre. In one of the small black triangles it says' slow' in white thin line & in another, it says 'ways'.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 11
Avoid doing the washing up
A landscape image that is a mixture of photo with handwriting & black or white line outlining objects in the photo. The background is a wooden grain-effect table top, on which there is an empty small white jug top right corner with a white mug of coffee on its right. Below this is a knife & fork on a white folded rectangular paper napkin. To the right of this, is a light blue ceramic rectangular plate, its long side, parallel to the bottom edge. On it are 2 poached eggs with cheese & ham & some green peashoot garnish. Above this there's some white handwriting, "Avoid doing the washing up".
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 10
Time together
A landscape image with a solid black background of 2 drawn black outlined hands, fingers overlapping in the centre of the image. The thumbs of both hands are at the bottom of the image. The lines describing the fingers interlace. Both hands are filled with a rainbow of colours, radiating out from the centre where the fingers interlace. The centre is almost white, then around that, yellow, orange, red, greens & blues at the edge. Rays of lines come from the centre, mixing the colours into one another going outwards; likes rays of light. The interfaces between each colour are soft, not harsh.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 9
Finis
A landscape-orientated frame with a white background. To the very far right, near the bottom edge is the word 'Finis' in uppercase letters, in a font that curves to the right. The last letter, 's' is partially cut off by the edge of the frame. Above that, starting a third of the way up there is a thin sapling branch that reaches downwards from the right edge, cut off from the rest of an unseen branch. It echoes the curve of the word with 3 budding leaves along its length. The last budding leaf at the tip is near the bottom of the frame.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 8
This is a lovely little corner!
A grey & black line drawing on a white background in landscape orientation. On the left is a line drawing of a daffodil head with a bit of shading and filling almost the page from top to bottom. On the right is a drawing on an elderly man in profile, facing left, sitting on a bench, holding a map whilst looking down at it. Above both images it says, "This is a lovely little corner!" in hand writing.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 7
The hidden Sheaf; Sheffield's best kept secret
A portrait-orientated black & white image of a brick arched culvert. The floor of the culvert forms a shallow 'v' with puddles of water collecting in the centre. It is darker in the foreground and lighter where the culvert finishes in the middle distance. Beyond the end of the culvert, hints of foliage can be seen; over exposed in the bright sunlight. There is a group of people at the end of the culvert, all facing away towards one obscured person. The highest part of the arched culvert is at least twice the hight of the people.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 6
In honour of James Brunt
A landscape drawing of white leaves radiating from the centre on a black background. Each leaf is surrounded by the black background. The leaves radiate to the top & bottom edges of the frame, but don't go all the way out to the left & right edges. Instead white lines hinting at more leaves peter out to the left & right edges.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 5
Always leaving it until the last minute
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 4
My Art Practice Superpower
A landscape image in mainly black & white. In the centre there are silhouettes of a child and a lady face to face in profile holding shadow puppets of fish up to each other. They are interacting with one another through the puppets. The silhouettes are in a cutout circular spiky shape, surrounded by black rays out to the edge on a white background.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 3
Retreat in time and space
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 2
Rebirth & Renewal
A square photo in which there is a golden sun shape with 32 rays like the sun on a white background. It nearly covers the whole square. In the centre of the sun shape, there is a black & white photo in a round cut-out. The image is of the top half of a girl in the 1940s. She has a centre parting in her hair and pig-tails tied into loops with ribbon. She is smiling straight at the camera.
Work By: Cathy Spiers

Day 1
Shadow Puppet waiting to meet the light
A landscape photo of a fish silhouette cut out of cardboard. It has a cut out hole for an eye and mouth it has a spiky back, abdomen and tail. There are other cutout shapes in the background blurred.
Work By: Cathy Spiers